Mathews J Nedumpara
5th July 2026
98205 35428
If you file a suit it will be decided on merits, no matter whether you engage a kith and kin of judges or otherwise favoured, or engage an ordinary lawyer. On the contrary, if you institute a Writ Petition in a High Court, for instance in the Bombay High Court, its fate largely depends upon whom you engage as a lawyer and before which judge the case comes up for hearing. Unless it is a noble soul like Justice Vasifdar (rtd) or like Milind Jadhav and a few, nay very few like them, it is dismissed in a few minutes offering some technical issues. The approach of the court is not how to redress the grievance of the litigant, but how to throw him out offering some reason. If you are rich and super-rich and engage a progeny or a sycophant, then you are heard. The court will grant you relief by hearing your lawyer out of turn, even discharging its board. I should not be blaming Justice G.S. Patel and former CJI Chandrachud’s son alone for it, which I have criticised in the past. There are many judges who have acted in the same manner as Justice Patel did, maybe in a lesser degree.
2.You had a good case. It was dismissed without any meaningful hearing and without a judgment which is really a speaking one. You go to the Supreme Court. It is dismissed in a hearing which lasts for 93 seconds. There is no judgment. No reasons are offered. You file a Review. You are never heard. You will get an order saying that the case was examined and no grounds for review is made out. You thereafter file a curative. That too is dismissed in chambers, without a hearing.
3.Before taking your brief no lawyer would warn you that what is stated above is in the offing. But you are no maiden litigant. You had your fingers burnt many times in the past. You realise that the only way to obviate such a calamity is to engage a lawyer who has the best equations with the judge. You had realised merit of the case is not entirely what matters. You are told X or Y who is a progeny is the best bet. You pay him through your nose. No progeny can win all cases. They win a few. They have hijacked the institution of judiciary. They have made it an industry.
4.The first-generation lawyers who constitute 98% of the Bar are really not part of the higher echelons of our judiciary. That is entirely monopolized by the dynasties of lawyers and judges. The pernicious system of judges designating lawyers as senior advocates, as also judges appointing judges (Collegium), have taken deep roots. 98% of the Bar are the victims of this malaise. But their voice is never heard.
5.I have, since the past two decades, been trying to make their voice heard relentlessly. I will continue efforts, for I believe that truth and justice will ultimately prevail. There are many sitting and retired judges who privately acknowledge my efforts and request me to continue my mission. I am sure they, in the not-so-far future, will join me in the mission for Judicial reforms.